Call for the Dead

This is a guest review from my eldest son, Deron:

This is my first John le Carré novel as it was le Carré’s. In this spy thriller that takes place during the early Cold War, we are introduced to George Smiley, a member of the Circus, a British intelligence agency named for its location in Cambridge Circus, London. At home, he receives an urgent late night call from the Circus Head of Service - Samuel Arthur Fennan at the Foreign Office had committed suicide. Only two days earlier, Smiley had conducted a routine security interview with Fennan prompted by an anonymous allegation. He had judged the claim baseless and assured Fennan that he “could see no reason why we should bother him further.” But despite those assurances, in a letter found near his body, Fennan wrote, “...I have decided to take my life. I cannot spend my remaining years under a cloud of disloyalty and suspicion. I realise that my career is ruined…” Smiley was baffled. The letter was in complete contradiction to what he had expressed in the interview. He then conducts an initial investigation and finds even more inconsistencies that convinces him that this was not a suicide; it was a murder.

Chapter one, “A Brief History of George Smiley”, was jarring. Rather than beginning with the action, the novel begins with a biography. I generally expect to learn a character’s history through relevant flashbacks as the story progresses and not given it wholesale. Only after finishing the book did this chapter make more sense. John le Carré is loudly declaring who George Smiley isn’t, namely Ian Fleming’s James Bond. Right out of the gate in the first sentence, the “breathtakingly ordinary” George Smiley marries the beautiful Lady Ann Sercomb, and in the second, we learn “she left him two years later in favor of a Cuban motor racing driver”. One might as well replace “a Cuban motor racing driver” with “Bond, James Bond”. Dapper? Smiley is described as “Short, fat and of a quiet disposition, he appeared to spend a lot of money on really bad clothes, which hung about his squat frame like skin on a shrunken toad.” In his prime? “Smiley was no material for promotion and it dawned on him gradually that he had entered middle age without ever being young, and that he was - in the nicest possible way - on the shelf.” And as far as espionage and foreign intrigue goes, Smiley was told, “Anyway, my dear fellow, as like as not you’re blown after all the ferreting about in the war. Better stick at home, old man, and keep the home fires burning.” This chapter also provides some clever foreshadowing of both Smiley’s professional and personal lives.

I did feel that le Carré was hand-holding me through the entire novel. Smiley noted the questions needing answers. Problems were restated, and there was very little misdirection. I always knew what Smiley was thinking through interior monologues. This left me never guessing.

The prose is the real reason to read this novel. John le Carré’s character descriptions, such as Smiley’s, are precise and vivid. Of Fennan’s wife, he writes, “Although frail, she conveyed an impression of endurance and courage, and the brown eyes that shone from her crooked little face were of astonishing intensity. It was a worn face, racked and ravaged long ago, the face of a child grown old on starving and exhaustion…” He is even skilled at purposely writing badly. I chuckled when Smiley said, “My story really begins in 1938. I was alone in my room one summer evening. It had been a beautiful day, warm and peaceful. Fascism might never have been heard of. I was working with my shirt sleeves at a desk by my window, not working because it was such a wonderful evening.” This is shortly followed by Smiley saying, “I’m sorry, I feel a little inarticulate.”

While imperfect, Call for the Dead was entertaining, and I found myself rereading sections. I’m looking forward to the next novel in this series.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment:

Both John le Carré and Ian Fleming were members of intelligence services, utilizing their knowledge and experiences in their novels. Given le Carré’s awareness of James Bond, is it possible that George Smiley’s unfaithful wife was named after Fleming’s wife, Ann?